John Marinatto Discussion

[RDF]

For the health/future of the Big East, he must be eliminated for any decision making and replaced--I'd just form a committee of the schools left in the conference and let them seek a resolution because this moron has no concept of reality, no vision, and obviously has no sense of business as his response to the defections this past weekend was that of a complete jackass.

When you have clowns like this in charge, your brand dies. The signs have been there of how in over his head this moron is prior to what happened this past weekend but the schools left need to go over his head/eliminate him from the process and include people who not only have a vision but more importantly can get things done. Disgusting as it is, it's everyone for themselves right now and you need proactive thinking people and aggressive minded people who get things done and don't sit around with their thumb in their ass making declarations of "maintaining strength" after the fact.

Marinatto is unqualified to lead a conference, and has proven he has no business being involved in deciding the future of the conference, let alone what color shirt he should wear when he wakes up.

[guru]

Sept 21, 2011 11:11:28 GMT -5 RDF said:

For the health/future of the Big East, he must be elimated for any decision making and replaced--I'd just form a committee of the schools left in the conference and let them seek a resolution because this moron has no concept of reality, no vision, and obviously has no sense of business as his response to the defections this past weekend was that of a complete jackass.

When you have clowns like this in charge, your brand dies. The signs have been there of how in over his head this moron is prior to what happened this past weekend but the schools left need to go over his head/eliminate him from the process and include people who not only have a vision but more importantly can get things done. Disgusting as it is, it's everyone for themselves right now and you need proactive thinking people and aggressive minded people who get things done and don't sit around with their thumb in their ass making declarations of "maintaining strength" after the fact.

Marinotto is unqualified to lead a conference, and has proven he has no business being involved in deciding the future of the conference, let alone what color shirt he should wear when he wakes up.

Not defending Marinotto, but how would you have navigated these waters, genius? Any school without a D-1 football team is at a huge disadvantage - and the Big East is full of those schools. Looked at from another, possibly more rational perspective, it's kind of amazing the Big East has lasted as long as it has, given its composition. How many other hybrid conferences are there?

[HometownHoya]

Sept 21, 2011 11:13:56 GMT -5 guru said:

Sept 21, 2011 11:11:28 GMT -5 RDF said:

For the health/future of the Big East, he must be elimated for any decision making and replaced--I'd just form a committee of the schools left in the conference and let them seek a resolution because this moron has no concept of reality, no vision, and obviously has no sense of business as his response to the defections this past weekend was that of a complete jackass.

When you have clowns like this in charge, your brand dies. The signs have been there of how in over his head this moron is prior to what happened this past weekend but the schools left need to go over his head/eliminate him from the process and include people who not only have a vision but more importantly can get things done. Disgusting as it is, it's everyone for themselves right now and you need proactive thinking people and aggressive minded people who get things done and don't sit around with their thumb in their ass making declarations of "maintaining strength" after the fact.

Marinotto is unqualified to lead a conference, and has proven he has no business being involved in deciding the future of the conference, let alone what color shirt he should wear when he wakes up.

Not defending Marinotto, but how would you have navigated these waters, genius? Any school without a D-1 football team is at a huge disadvantage - and the Big East is full of those schools. Looked at from another, possibly more rational perspective, it's kind of amazing the Big East has lasted as long as it has, given its composition. How many other hybrid conferences are there?

Not saying that I could do any better but we need a commissioner that has passion and vision. Anyone could see that it was either the BE or B12 that was being raided, why were there not greater plans. Why wasn't the 5$ mil raised after 2004? Why didn't we sit down every year and talk about the Big East as an ATHLETIC CONFERENCE , not football? If Cuse and Pitt consider their athletic programs AS A WHOLE, they would have been less likely to leave. Obviously Marinotto can't change their minds but everything we have heard from his points to a man that is looking to his members to lead. This isn't the time when we need the members of a diverse conference to lead, we need a commissioner that we can trust, can get things done, and can emphasize the Big East as a whole.

In the current atmosphere of super football conferences, why can't the BE market themselves as an ALL SPORT conference. Yeah our Football may be weaker then the superconferences but if the Big East is the top competitor in the other ~23 (or w/e) NCAA sports, they will survive and find other sources of income.

[Madgesdiq]

Sept 21, 2011 11:13:56 GMT -5 guru said:

Sept 21, 2011 11:11:28 GMT -5 RDF said:

For the health/future of the Big East, he must be elimated for any decision making and replaced--I'd just form a committee of the schools left in the conference and let them seek a resolution because this moron has no concept of reality, no vision, and obviously has no sense of business as his response to the defections this past weekend was that of a complete jackass.

When you have clowns like this in charge, your brand dies. The signs have been there of how in over his head this moron is prior to what happened this past weekend but the schools left need to go over his head/eliminate him from the process and include people who not only have a vision but more importantly can get things done. Disgusting as it is, it's everyone for themselves right now and you need proactive thinking people and aggressive minded people who get things done and don't sit around with their thumb in their ass making declarations of "maintaining strength" after the fact.

Marinotto is unqualified to lead a conference, and has proven he has no business being involved in deciding the future of the conference, let alone what color shirt he should wear when he wakes up.

Not defending Marinotto, but how would you have navigated these waters, genius? Any school without a D-1 football team is at a huge disadvantage - and the Big East is full of those schools. Looked at from another, possibly more rational perspective, it's kind of amazing the Big East has lasted as long as it has, given its composition. How many other hybrid conferences are there?

1. He could have showed leadership in bringing the University Presidents together instead of being complicit in allowing them walking away from a $1 Billion television deal pushing back future negotiations until Sept. 2012, negotiations Marinatto called the most important in league history. Now there may not be a league when these negotiations begin, and the decimal point needs to be moved to the left.

2. Not bringing University Presidents together with respect to increasing exit fees; establishing notification protocol; and generally encouraging reactive behavior in a pro-active changing landscape.

[RDF]

Sept 21, 2011 11:13:56 GMT -5 guru said:

Sept 21, 2011 11:11:28 GMT -5 RDF said:

For the health/future of the Big East, he must be elimated for any decision making and replaced--I'd just form a committee of the schools left in the conference and let them seek a resolution because this moron has no concept of reality, no vision, and obviously has no sense of business as his response to the defections this past weekend was that of a complete jackass.

When you have clowns like this in charge, your brand dies. The signs have been there of how in over his head this moron is prior to what happened this past weekend but the schools left need to go over his head/eliminate him from the process and include people who not only have a vision but more importantly can get things done. Disgusting as it is, it's everyone for themselves right now and you need proactive thinking people and aggressive minded people who get things done and don't sit around with their thumb in their ass making declarations of "maintaining strength" after the fact.

Marinotto is unqualified to lead a conference, and has proven he has no business being involved in deciding the future of the conference, let alone what color shirt he should wear when he wakes up.

Figures Georgetown would have someone defend this jackass. The landscape of CFB has been changing for years--and being involved in the procedure as Big East has, you don't sit around and think everything is complete and nobody in your conference is going to leave--especially when rumors are some ACC members were unhappy/seeking other conference affiliation unless something changed. So what does he do? Was he communicating with his FB schools? Obviously not. Was he aware of the fact ACC raided his conference and was openly seeking teams--specifically teams in his league-as was reported on several media outlets as far back as last Spring--at least CFB outlets had made notion of the fact that Big East schools were being talked about as "unhappy/seeking other opportunities". Now do you think that might register a bit more then having you sit on your hands and responding in the manner he did?

For a leader to respond in the manner he did Saturday was disgraceful and showed how disconnected/unqualified he is. You think this happens to Gavitt or Trahghese?

We all agree with the disgusting manner this stuff is taking place. Nobody keeps their word. Nobody has any loyalty. However, when you are in a leadership position, you either adapt and be proactive or you get wiped out and die. This guy took it in the shorts and these false bravado comments about how they "survived" in past is nice to stroke ego of heartbroken/confused fans but it doesn't solve anything or show any sign of adaptation. Being a Hoya fan, I'm used to reactive leadership and waiting for failure to address problem areas, but to have a Head of the Conference basically reinforce that ineptitude was sad.

You dont' want to "survive"--you want to thrive and that means being proactive and making certain you are exploring options/doing business ahead of the competition, not in reaction to what they've done. When you are in a world of crooks, you don't worry about winning an ethical battle, you steal everything they have and kill them to make sure they can't get you back. Marinatto has to go.

[Cambridge]

Sept 21, 2011 11:22:33 GMT -5 HometownHoya said:

Sept 21, 2011 11:13:56 GMT -5 guru said:

Not defending Marinotto, but how would you have navigated these waters, genius? Any school without a D-1 football team is at a huge disadvantage - and the Big East is full of those schools. Looked at from another, possibly more rational perspective, it's kind of amazing the Big East has lasted as long as it has, given its composition. How many other hybrid conferences are there?

Not saying that I could do any better but we need a commissioner that has passion and vision. Anyone could see that it was either the BE or B12 that was being raided, why were there not greater plans. Why wasn't the 5$ mil raised after 2004? Why didn't we sit down every year and talk about the Big East as an ATHLETIC CONFERENCE , not football? If Cuse and Pitt consider their athletic programs AS A WHOLE, they would have been less likely to leave. Obviously Marinotto can't change their minds but everything we have heard from his points to a man that is looking to his members to lead. This isn't the time when we need the members of a diverse conference to lead, we need a commissioner that we can trust, can get things done, and can emphasize the Big East as a whole.

In the current atmosphere of super football conferences, why can't the BE market themselves as an ALL SPORT conference. Yeah our Football may be weaker then the superconferences but if the Big East is the top competitor in the other ~23 (or w/e) NCAA sports, they will survive and find other sources of income.

I am pretty sure the $5m and 27 month notice period was actually added after[/b] the ACC poached Miami and Tech and just before BC joined them. Before that there was no fee and no waiting period. Part of BC's legal defense in the suit filed against them was that the fee was added improperly in that interim period.

Also your point about the Big East being an athletic conference and not a football conference is precisely the reason why only a milktoast commissioner was possible. The football schools would never accept a hard nosed basketball first commissioner. The basketball schools would never support a hard nosed football first commissioner. The result is what you see now.

[HometownHoya]

Hence why it needs to be a commissioner based upon building an entire athletic conference. Even if we are elite in basketball, there are still tons of other sports out there that need homes and attention.

As annoyed that we all are at Football for their selfish view in creating conferences, a basketball only conference would be just as selfish and a death knell for many of our other athletic teams.

EDIT: Did not know that about the exit fee. When did the ACC put theirs in? How are the exit fees among the SEC/B1G/Pac-1X?

[FrazierFanatic]

David Stern won't have a league to run for the next year or so, maybe he could step in for 12 months. Or maybe Tagliabue could take over everything, and figure out a good way to punish Pitt and its President for shooting down the proposed TV deal Tags had helped negotiate, which was far better than whatever we will end up with if the conference survives.

[FromTheBeginning]

The commission works for the conference (universities) - they employ him - he should be working at their direction - plenty of blame to go all around here. I run a business - if my executives are not aggressive enough, that's my fault for allowing the situation to exist in the first place. I'm not absolving anyone of blame here - but let's put the ultimate responsibility where it belongs. Hopefully this is a stark enough wake-up call to prevent this from happening again in the future (not being prepared) if the conference ultimately survives.

[NCHoya]

Agree with RDF, Marinatto has done an awful job. He basically had one year to react after last year's firedrill with the then Pac 10 threatening to eat the Big 12 and the Big 10 kicking the tires on adding Pitt, Cuse or RU.

So what did he do for the last year after that immenent threat? He accepted Pitt's basketball coach Jaime Dixon's idea to add TCU. Remember that was not on Marinatto's radar until Dixon had a conversation with old friends at TCU. He should have had Navy, Army and AF all committed as fb-members by now. Now that sell job just got 100X harder. He also should have at the least added UCF along with TCU which had the facilities, a market to sell and the University's unrelenting support. Instead, he sat on his hands with 9 football members, because the schedule got easier!

He did not even have the courage to tell Pitt to shove it and take the media deal. From reports, it appears more schools favored the deal than did not. If the guy was too scared to take the position of the majority within his own conference, what good is he as a commissioner? He was scared schools would get mad at the conference and leave. Well, in reality, the schools were looking for a leader to hold the conference together and give them confidence 10 years from now the Big East would be standing and competing at the highest level.

[HometownHoya]

Sept 21, 2011 12:33:08 GMT -5 NCHoya said:

Agree with RDF, Marinatto has done an awful job. He basically had one year to react after last year's firedrill with the then Pac 10 threatening to eat the Big 12 and the Big 10 kicking the tires on adding Pitt, Cuse or RU.

So what did he do for the last year after that immenent threat? He accepted Pitt's basketball coach Jaime Dixon's idea to add TCU. Remember that was not on Marinatto's radar until Dixon had a conversation with old friends at TCU. He should have had Navy, Army and AF all committed as fb-members by now. Now that sell job just got 100X harder. He also should have at the least added UCF along with TCU which had the facilities, a market to sell and the University's unrelenting support. Instead, he sat on his hands with 9 football members, because the schedule got easier!

He did not even have the courage to tell Pitt to shove it and take the media deal. From reports, it appears more schools favored the deal than did not. If the guy was too scared to take the position of the majority within his own conference, what good is he as a commissioner? He was scared schools would get mad at the conference and leave. Well, in reality, the schools were looking for a leader to hold the conference together and give them confidence 10 years from now the Big East would be standing and competing at the highest level.

If that's true that will be quite something.

So I think most people are in agreement that Marinatto did not do this rightand may not be the right man for the job, but who is? Traghese (sp?) doesn't want the whole conference anymore, David Stern isn't walking down the road and I'm not sure I want him in charge of my athletic conference, it would be nice if we could get Tagilabue in as an interim but I'm not sure how much he is connected/saw this coming anymore.

Honestly who else out there is even a option. How does one become a commissioner? Do you find one from a lesser conference (maybe the MWC or WCC?) Do you promote an AD that had run an excellent overall program? Really, where do you find candidates to run a league?

[Dhall]

Sept 21, 2011 12:22:29 GMT -5 FromTheBeginning said:

The commission works for the conference (universities) - they employ him - he should be working at their direction - plenty of blame to go all around here. I run a business - if my executives are not aggressive enough, that's my fault for allowing the situation to exist in the first place. I'm not absolving anyone of blame here - but let's put the ultimate responsibility where it belongs. Hopefully this is a stark enough wake-up call to prevent this from happening again in the future (not being prepared) if the conference ultimately survives.

Exactly. Anybody has a problem with Georgetown's situation, the blame starts with President DeGioia, then AD Reed. They actually have responsibility for the athletic program, not the commissioner of the league we happen to be associated with currently. Ask the Presidents and ADs of Syracuse, Pitt and UCONN.

[vamosalaplaya]

Agree with RDF on Marinatto. This league is - was - sitting on a gold mine in terms of owning New England, Philly, and NY, and having a nice foothold in DC. To get outmaneuvered by the ACC, which is crap in football and whose media markets are far worse - is a disgrace.

Anyone who thinks that Georgetown having an on campus arena in basketball - as nice as that would be - would change where we sit in this is deluding themselves. It's very simple - we don't play in the top level of college football. Doesn't matter if we had the college hoops version of Camden Yards sitting where McDonough is.

But this guy has to go.

[sleepy]

agreed Vam I actually believe the GU administration has slow played the practice facilty precisely because this was so inevitable.

I don't blame Marinatto totally he should share it equally with Tranghese who saw the train wreck that he had created and bailed.
Marinattos handling and pushing for Villanova for football while ignoring other options pushed all the FBs farther away than ever.

Neither Tranghese or Marinatto could ever sell a compromise between FBs and Non FBs with regard to control of the league whether that be voting , control of the BE brand name etc. The Presidents and ADs of all schools are equally guilty In that regard.

Marinatto has always been a guy who never should have been there. Too much like a clam at high tide knowing its soon going to be going out. to me he was far too concerned with the impact upon Providence College than the rest of the Big East.

[TC]

Sept 21, 2011 13:09:51 GMT -5 vamosalaplaya said:

Anyone who thinks that Georgetown having an on campus arena in basketball - as nice as that would be - would change where we sit in this is deluding themselves. It's very simple - we don't play in the top level of college football.

It would change where the program sits financially. No one is making the statement that we'd have been invited to the ACC if we only had a 10,000 person on campus arena - but it would change things for the program's balance sheet in being able to handle a lesser conference schedule, in making things more attractive to recruits, in having an on campus arena that we can actually televise a game in.

The headwinds that JT3 faces are fairly insane - crumbling facilities, being left out in the cold while another local team reaps the benefit of conference disarray, having to explain that situation to 5 star recruits, Edited poor local coverage by the newspapers, no hope of ever building an on-campus arena, having no hope of ever moving up in the conference ranks, and a clueless fan base that calls for his head every year if the team loses a tournament game. If he keeps this thing afloat for ten years, I'll be impressed. I sure wouldn't want the job if I were him.

[fsohoya]

Sept 21, 2011 15:27:27 GMT -5 TC said:

Sept 21, 2011 13:09:51 GMT -5 vamosalaplaya said:

Anyone who thinks that Georgetown having an on campus arena in basketball - as nice as that would be - would change where we sit in this is deluding themselves. It's very simple - we don't play in the top level of college football.

It would change where the program sits financially. No one is making the statement that we'd have been invited to the ACC if we only had a 10,000 person on campus arena - but it would change things for the program's balance sheet in being able to handle a lesser conference schedule, in making things more attractive to recruits, in having an on campus arena that we can actually televise a game in.

The headwinds that JT3 faces are fairly insane - crumbling facilities, being left out in the cold while another local team reaps the benefit of conference disarray, having to explain that situation to 5 star recruits, Edited poor local coverage by the newspapers, no hope of ever building an on-campus arena, having no hope of ever moving up in the conference ranks, and a clueless fan base that calls for his head every year if the team loses a tournament game. If he keeps this thing afloat for ten years, I'll be impressed. I sure wouldn't want the job if I were him.

Let's not get too negative. Yes, the precarious state of the BE is a gigantic threat, but when the BE has been together we have actually had a practice facility - McD - and a home arena. And, from what I can tell, we turned a pretty nice profit on hoops last year. So things could be WAY better, but they could also be worse. What is troubling is how poorly prepared we are for worse.

[blueandgray]

He's so unimpressive and in way over his head!!

[FrazierFanatic]

Interesting that the Big 12 is returning to the guy who was commissioner back in 1981-1990 when it was still the Big 8

[sleepy]

Perhaps a show of conference unity might inspire both the FBs and Non-FBs to give a legitimate long term shot in making this conference work.
All conference presidents should band together and ask for the immediate resignation of
Marinatto, Hire the most capable guy in the country on a unanimous vote, close down the office in Providence and move to NY.

[vcjack]

Sept 22, 2011 12:57:30 GMT -5 sleepy said:

Perhaps a show of conference unity might inspire both the FBs and Non-FBs to give a legitimate long term shot in making this conference work.
All conference presidents should band together and ask for the immediate resignation of
Marinatto, Hire the most capable guy in the country on a unanimous vote, close down the office in Providence and move to NY.

On that last point, does anyone know how expansive the Big East offices are in Providence? If its a lot, then having to pay NYC rents for an organization that is standing on the edge of a knife may not be totally wise